Traffic doors are typically used in commercial establishments to allow two-way traffic through a doorway. Such doors may be used in a variety of such establishments including supermarkets, restaurants, retail stores, hospitals, walk-in coolers, etc.
The doors may be provided singly or in pairs, and mount to a door frame by hinges which allow the doors to freely swing in opposite directions, i.e. both inwardly into a room and outwardly from the room. In a commercial establishment, this allows employees to freely move between two adjacent rooms merely by pushing on the freely, swingable doors wherein the doors automatically return to the closed position without any further action from the employee, which thereby facilitates the traffic flow of employees from room to room.
More particularly, such traffic doors also have a hinge arrangement connecting each door to a door frame which allows the doors to swing in opposite directions, but also gently closes or returns the door to a closed or “rest” position blocking the doorway. Examples of such a hinge assembly are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,160,913 and 3,289,244, which patents were obtained by the assignee of the present invention. The disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. These hinge assemblies operate to close the door without the need for a spring arrangement that would generate a spring force to bias the doors to a closed position. Rather, the hinge assemblies disclosed in these patents use a roller assembly which generates a closing action on the doors by gravity acting upon the door itself.
A specific example of such traffic doors is the family of doors sold by the present assignee, namely Eliason Corporation, under its EASY SWING® trademark.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved door assembly of this general type which incorporates an improved hinge assembly which has a side-mount construction mountable to a single face of a door.
The invention relates to an improved door assembly of the type which positively restrains the door in a normally closed position. The door assembly preferably includes an improved top pin assembly which is mountable to one side of the door without the necessity of notching or cutting the door panel. The hinge assembly is partially pre-assembled with an upper bracket assembly pre-assembled to a top hinge pin prior to mounting of the door. While the bracket assembly will move in unison with the door, it is initially pre-mounted to the hinge pin and suspended therefrom, and then is engaged with a side-mounted base bracket already fixed on the door so that base bracket and upper bracket assembly are affixed together on the door and allow for rotation of the door relative to the hinge pin. This provides for ease of assembly, and provides a side mounted top pin assembly which is not visible from one side of the door.
Other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
Certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience and reference only, and will not be limiting. For example, the words “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “rightwardly” and “leftwardly” will refer to directions in the drawings to which reference is made. The words “inwardly” and “outwardly” will refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, the geometric center of the arrangement and designated parts thereof. Said terminology will include the words specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof, and words of similar import.